Monthly Archives: November 2008

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Pope Benedict plans to visit Israel and the PA in May. It makes us wonder what is the game of the Vatican this time.

On the one hand the Catholic Church is coming under serious atack from Islamist Fascism everywhere in the world, especially in Iraq as well as all Arab lands.

But on the other the Vatican is the most serious and oldest counter revolutionary force in the world. It seems that the Vatican wishes to strike a concorde with Islam because the world crisis of capitalism is driving the masses towards revolution. These two Islam and the Vatican are natural friends.

Furthermore Peres is behind the invitation to Bededict.

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The papal visit to the Palestinian Authority is expected to renew the Vatican’s relationship with the Muslim world, which has soured in light of Benedict’s citation of an anti-Muslim text.

Dozens of sheiks and other Muslims marched in Hevron last Wednesday to protest recent remarks that were made by Pope Benedict XVI that some have interpreted as insulting to Islam.

Benedict had quoted a Medieval text which called the teachings of Muhammad “evil and inhuman,” particularly “his command to spread by the sword the faith.” Although the Pope later explained that the quote does not reflect his personal views, Muslims worldwide staged protests and attacked Christian churches.

About 2,000 Palestinians angrily protested Friday night against Pope Benedict XVI, accusing him of leading a new Crusade against the Muslim world. Earlier, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of the Islamic Hamas group, said the pope had offended Muslims everywhere.

Two churches in the West Bank were hit by firebombs early Saturday, and a group claiming responsiblity said the attacks were meant as a protest against the Pope’s comments.

The firebombs left black scorch marks on the walls and windows of a Greek Catholic and an Anglican church in Nablus. Father Yousef, a priest at the Anglican Church, said several firebombs hit the outside wall of the church.

In a phone call to The Associated Press, a group calling itself the “Lions of Monotheism” claimed responsibility. The caller said the attacks were carried out to protest the pope’s remarks about Islam.

The Vatican said the pope did not intend the remarks — made in Germany on Tuesday during an address at a university — to be offensive. Benedict quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

“The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war,” the pope said. “He said, I quote, ‘Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'” Benedict did not explicitly agree with the statement nor repudiate it.

“In the name of the Palestinian people who live on holy Palestinian land, we express our rejection of the comments made by the holy pope about Islam as a faith, its religious law, history and way of life,” Haniyeh said Friday. “These comments hide the truth and hurt its blessed essence.”

“We call on the holy pope to reconsider his statement and to stop offending the Islamic religion that has a billion and a half followers,” he said.

On Friday night about 2,000 protesters gathered outside the Palestinian parliament building to express their anger at the pope’s statement. “This is a new crusade against the Arab Islamic world. It comes in different forms, in cartoons or lectures … They hate our religion,” Ismail Radwan, a local Hamas official, told the rally.

Outrage around world
Muslims around the world expressed outrage Friday over Pope Benedict XVI’s comments, with Turkey’s ruling party accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades and scores taking to the streets in protest.

Pakistan’s parliament unanimously condemned the pope, and the Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican’s ambassador to express regret over the remarks.

The comments raised tensions ahead of his planned visit to Turkey in November – his first pilgrimage to a Muslim country. Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, said Benedict’s remarks were either “the result of pitiful ignorance” about Islam and its prophet, or a deliberate distortion.

“He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world,” Kapusuz was quoted as saying by the state-owned Anatolia news agency. “It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades.”

“Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks, is going down in history for his words,” he said. “He is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as (Adolf) Hitler and (Benito) Mussolini.”

“We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels … and ask him (Benedict) to offer a personal apology – not through his officials — to Muslims for this false reading (of Islam),” Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah told worshippers.

After Benedict returned to Italy on Thursday, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said, “It certainly wasn’t the intention of the pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad (holy war) and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers.”

Lombardi insisted the pope respects Islam. Benedict wants to “cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward the other religions and cultures, obviously also toward Islam,” he said.

Turkey’s top Islamic cleric, Ali Bardakoglu, said Lombardi’s comments were not enough. “The pope himself should stand at the dais and say ‘I take it all back, I was misunderstood’ and apologize in order to contribute to world peace,” he said.

UK Muslims ‘disturbed’ by incident

The head of Britain’s largest Muslim body said it was disturbed by the pope’s use of a 14th century passage. The Muslim Council, which represents 400 groups in Britain, said the emperor’s views were “ill-informed and frankly bigoted.”

“One would expect a religious leader such as the pope to act and speak with responsibility and repudiate the Byzantine emperor’s views in the interests of truth and harmonious relations between the followers of Islam and Catholicism,” said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the council’s secretary-general.

In Cairo, Egypt, about 100 demonstrators gathered in an anti-Vatican protest outside the al-Azhar mosque, chanting “Oh Crusaders, oh cowards! Down with the pope!”

Elsewhere, Syria’s top Sunni Muslim religious authority, Sheik Ahmad Badereddine Hassoun, sent a letter to the pope that he feared the comments would worsen interfaith relations.

Later, he delivered a scathing sermon in which he denounced the remarks. “We have heard about your extremism and hate for Arabs and Muslims. Now that you have dropped the mask from your face we see its ugliness and extremist nature,” he said.

(IsraelNN.com) Peace House owner Morris Abraham came to Israel on Wednesday to stay in his building in Hevron. Abraham expressed determination to stay in the Peace House and resist any efforts to force Jews from the building. “Nobody is going to push me out of my house. I’m here,” he told a cheering crowd.

Abraham said he had purchased property in the city of Hevron due in part to his legacy from his grandfather, who survived the 1929 Arab pogrom in the city. “When we are terrorized or we are victims, we can’t just walk away,” he said. “We have to stay, we have to come back, we have to show our presence…. in all yishuvim [communities] and in all of Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel].”

Abraham showed reporters the original sale documents proving his ownership of the building. He offered to provide copies to all those present.

We on 4international send our full support to the wonderful Jewish people who wish to live in the town of Sarah, one of the most important figures in Jewish history, where her tomb is reputed to rest.

Our support for the Jews of Hebron is in some contrast to the notorious Gene Zitver who has referred to these wonderful and historical Jews as “hoodlums”. The renegade Zitver is supposed to be a Jew and he or one of his associates on Harrys Place have blocked my posts there protesting against Zitver’s betrayal of the Jews, his own people.

The issue of Islamofascism is in the news today as Islamist terrorists have hit Bombay

This report is from INN

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Also among the nine sites struck by the group throughout “the city that never sleeps” was the Chabad House, a popular stop for Israeli tourists passing through the area who are provided with kosher food and Jewish programs there.

Three top police officials were among at least 101 dead in the attacks, including Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, reported IBN News, which said Karkare had received death threats in phone calls at his home within the past several days. More than 250 people were reported wounded in the attacks, and nearly 200 reported taken hostage in various locations around the city.

The terrorists demanded that India release “all mujahedins,” telling a local television station that “only after that will we release the people.” Several other Israelis have maintained telephone contact from their eighth-floor hotel rooms. The Chabad website reported that “the situation is grim.”

American and British nationals were being separated out from among other foreigners and held as hostages, according to one British citizen who told Sky News television that he had watched as a gunman asked a group of some 40 hostages for their country of origin. Those who were from Italy, he said, were released, but British and American citizens were held.

British European Parliament Member Sajjad Karim told the television network before his cell phone went dead that he was barricaded in a darkened restaurant in the basement of the Oberoi Trident Hotel. “We are now in the dark in this room and we have barricaded all the doors. It’s really bad,” he said. Some 200 people were reported being held hostage at the hotel.

It is also estimated that there are still between 45 to 50 hostages being held by the terrorists at the Taj Mahal Hotel, located near the Chabad House. Five terrorists were reported dead and 14 police officers were killed as well in an exchange of gunfire at the hotel, where thick black smoke billowed from blazing windows on the upper floors.

All movie theaters, entertainment centers and multiplexes were ordered to remain shut due to fears that terrorists were still at large and roaming the city. Schools were closed as well, and it was not clear whether the stock market would be open on Friday.

NDTV reported that Indian security officials believe the terrorists may have infiltrated into the city by sea. There is little regulation in the Bombay Harbor, noted the journalist in his report. Nariman House is located in the southern part of the city, along the water.

The sophisticated terrorist attacks, the worst ever in Mumbai and India, hit as Mumbai is involved in elections. Incoming U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and currently sitting President George W. Bush condemned the attacks, as did French President Nicolas Sarkozy, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and France as the current president of the European Union.

Foreign nationals from Australia, Britain, Italy and Japan are counted among the victims thus far.

This raises the issue of Islamofascism and it also raises the support which US Imperialism is giving to Islamists in many parts of the world. Especially in Israel where the US Government is actually training an army of Islamists, also called “Palestinians”, and is doing so to provide them with a Jihadist state of their own.

It also raises the issue of the creation of Kosovo as an independent Islamist state and also of course of Bosnia where the main leader Izetbegovic was a confirmed and lifelong Islamofascist leader, given total support by the US and EU.

So on to India. There are 3 countries which US Imperialism has within its sights, Russia, China and also India. These are 3 massive and powerful countries and it is a fact that the US Imperialists used the Islamofascists to destroy Yugoslavia as well as to destroy the Soviets in Afghanistan.

So we have to wait and see if we get more details of these cruel attackers in India. But the pattern has truly been set. Is US Intelligence involved and will we know?

It could well be that the CIA as well as British Intelligence has had a hand in this butchery and that Jewish people staying on holiday could suffer grievously, just as the Jews of Sderot are being attacked mercilessly by Arab Palestinians, thanks also to the CIA and to US Imperialism there.

US Imperialism is in dire crisis, economic and political. It was the thesis of Jared Israel that the US Empire would more and more create strife and mayhem in order to prolong its own power base and to drive against its enemies. India is certainly a competitor enemy of US Imperialism. We should be aware of the ramifications to this story and event.

What Arab countries failed to achieve by use of force during the past 60 years, they hope to achieve by this renewed Saudi ‘Peace Initiative’:

Israel to withdraw to the non-secure borders that existed prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, borders that invited aggression – frontiers that the eloquent former Israeli diplomat, the late Abba Eban, branded “Auschwitz borders.”

Illegal Arab aggression against the territorial integrity and political independence of Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973 cannot and should not be rewarded. Arab attempts to ‘roll back the clock’ as if nothing happened, are a baseless ploy designed to use the ‘Peace Initiative’ as leverage to bring about a greater Israeli withdrawal from parts of Judie and Samaria [western Palestine] and to gain a broader base from which to continue to attack Israel.

Furthermore, Saudi Arabian King Saud ibn Abdul Aziz had stated in 1954 – before the 1967 Six-Day War and before the ‘Occupation’: “The Arab nations should sacrifice up to 10 million of their 50 million people, if necessary, to wipe out Israel … Israel to the Arab world is like a cancer to the human body, and the only way of remedy is to uproot it, just like a cancer.”

Saudi Arabia is one of the worst offenders of civil, religious, and political rights having a ‘judicial’ system that sanctions stoning individuals to death for adultery, beheading criminals with a sword, and amputation for theft, including cross-amputations of a right arm and a left leg that leave offenders horribly disabled for life.

Freedom House, a non-sectarian organization that was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt to monitor civil rights around the world, stated in its 2008 survey that Saudi Arabia is “Not [a] Free” country. Political rights and civil liberties are absent or virtually nonexistent, and people experience severely restricted rights of expression and association – all as a result of the extremely oppressive nature of the regime.

Professor, Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, past President of the International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) made it clear: “No legal right shall spring from a wrong” and this principle of law applies to Saudi Arabia as well.

On May 15, Israel’s Independence Day, Egyptian troops began moving into the Sinai and massing near the Israeli border. By May 18, Syrian troops were prepared for battle along the Golan Heights.

Nasser ordered the UN Emergency Force, stationed in the Sinai since 1956, to withdraw on May 16. Without bringing the matter to the attention of the General Assembly, as his predecessor had promised, Secretary-General U Thant complied with the demand. After the withdrawal of the UNEF, the Voice of the Arabs proclaimed (May 18, 1967):

As of today, there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel. We shall exercise patience no more. We shall not complain any more to the UN about Israel. The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence.6

An enthusiastic echo was heard May 20 from Syrian Defense Minister Hafez Assad:

Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse the aggression, but to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland. The Syrian army, with its finger on the trigger, is united….I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation.7

On May 22, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli shipping and all ships bound for Eilat. This blockade cut off Israel’s only supply route with Asia and stopped the flow of oil from its main supplier, Iran. The following day, President Johnson expressed the belief that the blockade was illegal and unsuccessfully tried to organize an international flotilla to test it.

Nasser was fully aware of the pressure he was exerting to force Israel’s hand. The day after the blockade was set up, he said defiantly: “The Jews threaten to make war. I reply: Welcome! We are ready for war.”8

Nasser challenged Israel to fight almost daily. “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight,” he said on May 27.9 The following day, he added: “We will not accept any…coexistence with Israel…Today the issue is not the establishment of peace between the Arab states and Israel….The war with Israel is in effect since 1948.”10

The injustice done to the Jews of Israel of today is seen by looking back to the very origins of the issue in the Middle East. Knowing that the Jews were the most oppressed nation that the world has ever known (and still are just look at the resolutions of Jew and Israel hatred from the United Nations as just one small example of total contemporary anti-Semitism) the League of Nations gathered together post World War 1 wrote the following which is from the official League source

[start quote here]

The text of the mandate stipulates:

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory

should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people;

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have selected His Britannic Majesty as the Mandatory for Palestine; …

Article 2.

The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such

political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the

establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.

Article 4.

An appropriate Jewish agency shall be recognised as a public body for the purpose of advising and co-operating with the Administration of Palestine in such economic, social and other matters as may affect the establishmentof the Jewish national home and the interests of the Jewish population inPalestine, and, subject always to the control of the Administration, to assist and take part in the development of the country. The Zionist organisation, so long as its organisation and constitution are in the opinion of the Mandatory appropriate, shall be recognised as such agency. It shall take steps in consultation with His Britannic Majesty’s Government to secure the cooperation of all Jews who are willing to assist in the establishment of the Jewish national home.

Article 5.

The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of, the Government of any foreign Power.

(All readily available from many sources on the Web)

Thus the Principal Powers in the world meeting together and after having won the recent contest between nations decided the above:

1 draws the link with the Balfour Declaration which had rightly given the Jews the space of Palestine for their national home, understanding that this was about 1 500th of the total area that was eventually falling into the lap of the Arabs. Could the Arabs they reasoned not accept the Jews living on 1 500th in a patch of land adjacent to the Sea!?

No 2 lays it down that the Mandatory must create that Jewish Homeland. No mention at all about a Arab or Palestinian Homeland. There WAS NO PALESTINIAN PEOPLE THEN. And as I stated the Arabs were being given 500 times more territory e.g. Iraq, Syria. Lebanon etc

No 4 makes it very explicit that the Mandatory should proceed and seek all Jews in the world who wish to return to this patch of land to help create that state, remembering again that the Arabs were being given 500 times more. Just a small patch for the Jews. Who would object!?

No 5. None of this land to be taken over by anu other power. Not Britain. Not US. Not any Arab state such as Egypt. Not France (Golan) etc etc. This was the land for the Jewish Homeland. THERE WAS NO PALESTINIAN PEOPLE MENTIONED AND FOR A GOOD REASON…THERE WAS NO PALESTINIAN PEOPLE FULL STOP. A later anti-Semitic invention.

When one examines the writings of one George Galloway who sent his message of support to the Irish antisemites of the Irish ISM as they trailed their anti-Semitic coat tails around the beautiful and historical streets of Fair Dublin one sees a total absence of this history.

With Galloway there is no empathy with this ancient and most oppressed of all people, the Jews.

Should Galloway as a socialist not be celebrating that after 2000 years the Jews had a Homeland offered to them by Balfour and the League of Nations, not forgetting Mr Galloway sir that the Arabs were given a fully 500 times more land on which to build their many states, some say as many as 22 states.

As a socialist Galloway. But you see in reality Galloway is THAT KIND OF SOCIALIST ISN’T HE?!

At the start of November the British MP George Galloway sent this reactionary statement to the anti-Semitic ISM in Dublin. It was to coincide with an anti-Semitic march being held in the beautiful and fair Irish capital of Dublin. Such a contrast don’t you think!

The ISM is known as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Ireland

[begin quote from Galloway here]

Statement of support from George Galloway MP (Respect):

“It is extremely fitting that you have chosen to demonstrate on this day to mark the infamous Balfour Declaration.

“It was Arthur Balfour – a notorious anti-Semite – who set us upon this bloody helter-skelter in Palestine and the wider Middle East.

(Balfour an anti-Semite??? In fact Balfour was part of a Christian tendency in Britain which because of the Bible was extremely sympathetic to the Jews. What a slur this is by Galloway who is so free and loose with his rabid tongue!)

“He it was who, in the name of one people, the British, gave to the purported leaders of another, the land belonging to a third without asking any of the peoples concerned.

“Those of us who are politically active in Britain have a special responsibility to the people of Palestine for the suffering that has been inflicted on them.

(What a total lie this is and what lies Galloway in writing to the anti-Semitic ISM of Ireland spreads about! Balfour gave nothing to nobody. It was the League of Nations years later. And to the Arabs the League of Nation and Balfour were giving an area of land 500 times more. And Galloway there were no people calling themselves Arab Palestinians. Galloway in using the phrase belonging to a third is just a liar.)

“That a demonstration is taking place in Dublin should prick consciences on this side of the water.

“Congratulations to the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign for taking this initiative.

(That as we said above is the Irish wing of the terrorist anti-Semitic ISM)

“This is a moment of potential change in world politics. No one should imagine that will be easy or automatic. But the closing days of the US election campaign are revealing a deep desire for change, way beyond what is on offer.

“For those of us who have campaign for decades in solidarity with the Palestinian people now is a time to renew our commitment.

(But never in solidarity with the Jewish people Galloway, the most oppressed people that history has known! Why not Galloway!?)

The failure of the US imperial project in Iraq and, increasingly in Afghanistan, is now fusing with the failure of the free market ideology that has held sway for a generation.

“It’s time to talk about alternatives. To resurrect the notions of solidarity and collectivity we were told had been vanquished.

“In so doing, the name of Palestine will be emblazoned on the banners of all who count themselves progressive.

(But not of Israel or the Jewish people Galloway. Galloway showing his colours!)

“The shifting sands in the Middle East are undermining the corrupt kings and puppet presidents who rule almost without exception from north Africa to the Afghanistan.

“There is a fire under the presidential throne of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. The underpinnings of the House of Saud are rotting away.